This week's Town Braintap event
Wed., Apr. 8, 2015, 7pm, at Twinfield Union School:
REAPING WHAT WAS SEWN:
Reclaiming History through the Re-Creation of
Early American Apparel (1770-1815)
A talk, slide and trunk show by Justin Squizzero, with Eliza West
Pre-registration appreciated. Easy sign-up online at www.townbraintap.net
or to register by phone: call Jeanne at 802-454-1298.
Think of this as a kind of historical re-enactment, minus soldiers and muskets. In this case, clothes tell the stories. But the garments you'll see are a far cry from the sort of modern costuming designed simply for historical ambiance. The authentically-constructed reproductions Justin and Eliza each make are created with a passion for the smallest historical detail and construction. In every visible way they produce their pieces using the hand methods and materials of the era, and in doing so they preserve important, active understandings about the socio-economics of past. You'll come to appreciate (if you didn't already) the painstaking research, period accuracy and high craft that goes into their art.
It may seem as though, through some sort of DNA grab, Justin and Eliza have cloned a past world of apparel materially lost to the ages. You can touch – and you can even try on, in some cases -- a collection of these living history interpretations of what "middling" folks of the period 1770-1815 wore. In that time, good fabric was a scarce and precious commodity. It often had as much value or status to a household as silver or land. Around our region, who made the clothing? Where did the material come from? How did this shape how people dressed? Come find out.
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS: Justin Squizzero is currently a master weaver, dyer and embosser (and occasional milker of cows) at Eaton Hill Textile Works in Marshfield, VT, specializing in fabrics for 18th, 19th and 20th Century interiors. He has a background in art and design, and previously served as Director of Historic Interpretation at Coggeshall Farm Museum in Bristol, Rhode Island, focusing on the life and work of a coastal farm in 1799. His mediums there ranged from wool and linen to soil and seeds in a three-dimensional recreation of the past. A costume scholar, he served as the farm's tailor, dressmaker, weaver, knitter and re-imaginer of approaches to living history. Eliza West of Richmond, Vermont, learned to sew before she learned to read. She has been making reproduction clothing since she was ten, and cares deeply about authenticity and hand skills. She worked as a historical tailor and interpreter at Fort Ticonderoga in New York, where she helped to research, create and explain the clothing of the fort's military interpreters. She interned at Colonial Williamsburg's millinery shop and ran school programs at the Shelburne Museum. She has a degree in costume studies and early modern history.
Suggested $10.00 donation at the door (or whatever amount is comfortable.) Town Braintap will gift forward all proceeds from the spring season to support the good work of Twinfield Union School’s community and literacy mentoring programs.
Questions: Ricka McNaughton rickamcn@charter.net 802-522-3172